All Black Jones found not guilty of assault

ALL BLACK Ian Jones was yesterday found not guilty of assault of a rival flanker, Junior. Paramore, during a provincial rugby match last season. It was the first time a criminal court proceeding has arisen out of at first class match in New Zealand.

Jones was playing for North Harbour at the time and Paramore for Counties. Paramore, a Manu Samoa player. has now transferred to league and plays in Australia.

"The prosecution case is riddled with contradictions," Judge Patrick Treston said in the Pukekobe District Court near Auckland on the third day of the hearing. Most of the evidence was irreconcilable, he said.

The judge found that the injury to Paramore came from a tackle that the player made on Jones where his eye came in contact with Jones elbow. The prosecution had alleged that after that tackle Jones had kicked Paramore, but the judge found that the evidence did not show that beyond reasonable doubt.

Meanwhile, in South Africa, an attempt to introduce rugby league as an alternative to rugby union has failed. "We have done everything in our power to promote and develop the game in South Africa, but it will never be possible to keep the game going without the support of the international governing body," South African Rugby Football League chairman, Ockie Oosthuizen said yesterday.

A disenchanted Oosthuizen said his association had decided to hang tip their boots. He cited as reasons for the game's collapse in South Africa lack of financial and moral support from the international Super League Board, lack of coaches, referees and development officers, lack of sponsors and lack of media support.

In an angry attack on the Super League Board, Oosthuizen said his association was lured into fielding a team in the 1995 World Cup with promises of financial and other support for the controlling body. "Nothing has materialised even though I have chairman Maurice Lindsay's promises and undertakings in writing," he added.

In writing league off as a "disorganised amateur outfit", Oosthuizen predicted that rugby union, which has now also gone professional would kill off the league code at international level within the next five years.

Rugby league was officially launched in South Africa on June 28th last year.